Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHT
CIMETIÈRE DU PÈRE LACHAISE
The world's most visited cemetery opened in 1804. Its 44 hectares hold more
than 70,000 ornate tombs - a stroll here is akin to exploring a verdant sculp-
ture garden. Père Lachaise was intended for Parisians, a response to local
neighbourhood graveyards being full. It was ground-breaking for Parisians to
be buried outside the quartier in which they'd lived.
BRUNO DE HOGUES / GETTY IMAGES ©
Paris residency was the only criterion needed to be buried in Père Lachaise, hence the
cemetery's cosmopolitan population. Among the 800,000-odd buried here are the composer
Chopin; the playwright Molière; the poet Apollinaire; writers Balzac, Proust, Gertrude Stein
and Colette; the actors Simone Signoret, Sarah Bernhardt and Yves Montand; the painters
Pissarro, Seurat, Modigliani and Delacroix; the
chanteuse
Édith Piaf alongside her two-
year-old daughter; and the dancer Isadora Duncan.
